Recent Experience

Banking, Commercial & Corporate Litigation

• Advising a French listed company in relation to the threatened call of first-demand guarantees further to the termination of a contract as a result of the EU sanctions imposed on the Russian counterparty.
• Advising a foreign company in connection with the call of first-demand counter-guarantees in relation to the alleged non-performance of a construction agreement.
• Representing several companies in relation the termination by their counterparts of contracts for the sale and purchase of electricity on the grounds of hardship and/or force majeure.
• Advising the purchaser of a company in relation to the breach of representations and warranties and willful misrepresentations by the seller of the shares of a company and to the interpretation of an earn-out clause.
• Representing the shareholders of an unlimited liability company in several disputes against the purchaser of a claim of circa EUR 6 million relating to remediation costs allegedly due by the company, the previous shareholders of the company on the grounds of willful misrepresentation and failure to comply with their duty to inform the purchasers of the shares, and against the financial advisers which had recommended the investment in the unlimited liability.
• Representing the directors and shareholders of a company placed in liquidation proceedings alongside the liquidator of the company in liquidation against an investment fund which had entered a letter of intent and eventually failed to participate in a share capital increase days before the closing of the share capital increase.

Bankruptcy & Bankruptcy-related litigation

• Advising a company in the energy sector in relation to the financial difficulties of its counterparts (independent producers of electricity) as a result of the recent steep increase in gas prices.
• Advising and representing a bank to recover a circa EUR 7 million claim against a debtor placed in conciliation and reorganization proceedings and related actions to enforce a mortgage and a personal guarantee granted by the managing director and shareholder of the debtor company.
• Advising and representing the shareholders and managers of a group of companies specialized in the food industry in connection with the restructuring of their debts in conciliation and in reorganization proceedings.
• Representing directors and shareholders of a company placed in liquidation proceedings against claims by the French liquidators that the shareholders and directors would have would have mismanaged the company and should be held liable on their personal assets for the debts of the debtor company.
• Advising and representing a group of senior secured noteholders in the restructuring of the Casino group in conciliation and accelerated safeguard proceedings.
• Advising and representing a Swiss bank in relation to loans granted to several borrowers placed in accelerated safeguard proceedings (including Orpea), reorganization and liquidation proceedings.

Compliance & International Sanctions

• Advising clients in connection with the European sanctions imposed on Iran, Syria, and Russia.
• Advising entities listed in Annex I of Regulation (EU) 269/2014 or controlled by a sanctioned person in order to obtain authorizations to release frozen funds or to sell, export, supply restricted goods and technologies.
• Advising clients in connection with the termination of ongoing contracts entered into with sanctioned Russian entities.
• Representing French and foreign companies in commercial disputes relating to contracts which performance has become impossible or too onerous due to the sanctions imposed on Russia.
• Carried out ABC and international sanctions due diligence in relation to the purchase of companies.

Relevant activities

• Member of Insol Europe
• Member of the Women in Restructuring Association (WiR)
• Member of the Expert Controls and Sanctions Counsel Network (ESCN)
• Teaching: International Bankruptcy Law, Law Faculty of Sciences-Po Paris
• Independent director of NBC Paris SA

Recent publications

• Third-party funding of a company in a distressed situation or placed in insolvency proceedings in France, Insolvency and Restructuring International Volume 16 Issue 1. (2022)
• France’s new flash insolvency proceedings for SMEs, Global Restructuring Review, November 2021
• Avis d’Expert : Votre client est en difficulté, comment anticiper et réagir ? L’usine Nouvelle, June 2020
• Avis d’Expert : Entreprises en difficultés : les outils à la disposition du dirigeant, L’usine Nouvelle, June 2020
• Eclairage sur les mesures récentes pour les entreprises en difficulté, Lettre Option Droit & Affaire, June 2020
• Entreprises en difficulté pendant la crise sanitaire : Interview, Le Monde du droit, April 2020
• Cessation des paiements après le 12 mars 2020 : Faisons comme si tout allait bien, Les Echos Executives, April 2020
• Covid-19: What measures has the French government put in place? Global Restructuring Review, March 2020

Recent conferences

• International sanctions, energy crisis, and inflation: impact on contract performance and consequences, November 2022
• Arbitration and insolvency proceedings, May 2022
• The financing of companies in difficulty by third-party funders, April 2022
• UK/EU Brexit jurisdiction issues, March 2021
• Arbitration and insolvency (Paris Arbitration Week), September 2021
• Extraterritoriality of US laws: Myths and Reality, December 2019
• Regards croisés sur la notion de déséquilibre significatif et le contrôle judiciaire du prix – Le 16 Law et Deloitte, February 2019